Flatbush Triangles To Get Made Over

On Tuesday night Community Boards 6 and 8 held a transportation meeting to discuss the North Flatbush Ave. Capital Project Scoping, a plan to improve the Flatbush triangular islands at 6th, 7th, and 8th Avenues and Carlton Avenue. Although the concept is still in the early stages of development, the plan is for all the triangles will receive extra seating, wider sidewalks, trees, bike racks, and generally more “usable public space.” The most dramatic idea on the table was for the 8th Avenue Triangle, where the original proposal was to close St. Johns Place between Flatbush and 8th and use it as a pedestrian plaza, redirecting traffic onto 8th. (Plan is pictured.) Because of protests from those living at One Plaza Street, the plan was revised (check out the revised design after the jump.) Those not living at One Plaza expressed a great interest in expanding that public space, but the building tenants protested on the basis of both emergency and convenience access. Even with the revised plan at 8th Avenue, there was still concern over bottleneck traffic from St. Johns onto Flatbush after the proposed sidewalk extensions. But overall, community board members mostly supported the need to improve sidewalks and safety on the triangles. The planning and design process for this project could be another two years before a 12-18 month construction period. Update: Download their Powerpoint presentation here.

Tell me about it. That “Yield to Pedestrians” sign at the corner of Eighth and Flatbush? Mine. I’ve lived on Plaza Street for fifteen years, and finally called the DOT after about a decade of near misses at that corner.

I’m afraid I don’t have a link for you. Since the project is in its very early stages and they were pretty sure they would have to make numerous changes, I don’t think they’ve released any designs publicly yet. There isn’t going to be work at 5th Avenue, but here are some more details for 6th, as of yet:

-Relocate historic clock, expand triangle, create an open plaza space, enhance landscape, add seating and bike racks. This is the triangle with the most public plaza space planned.

Maybe the same people who I see sitting in the plaza in the Meatpacking District near the Apple store on 9th Avenue. Or the ones who fill the plaza in Times Sqaure or Herald Square. Or the ones who sit in the plaza down in Dumbo….

Flatbush Avenue is not as bad as some people make it out to be. It’s 4 lanes. Less lanes than Broadway in Manhattan and I ALWAYS see people sitting in the benches in the median of Broadway…

“Maybe the same people who I see sitting in the plaza in the Meatpacking District near the Apple store on 9th Avenue. Or the ones who fill the plaza in Times Sqaure or Herald Square. Or the ones who sit in the plaza down in Dumbo….”

Close more streets off of Flatbush, Carlton dead ends, Pacific gone, Fifth Ave compromised, Vanderbilt one lane, you can’t get from one side of Brooklyn to the other. Oh yeah, I’ll use my bicycle, this way I don’t have to obey the traffic laws and can ignore the bike lanes that were created for me.